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La torre fue diseñada por un arquitecto famoso.

La torre fue diseñada por un arquitecto famoso.
The tower was designed by a famous architect.
From Lesson 172:The passive voice (fue por)·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about La torre fue diseñada por un arquitecto famoso.

Why does the word for "designed" end in "-a" (diseñada) instead of "-o"?
In the passive voice, the past participle (diseñada) acts like an adjective describing the subject. Since La torre is a feminine singular noun, the participle must match it in gender and number, changing the default "-o" ending to "-a".
Why use fue instead of estuvo for "was"?
To form the passive voice (describing an action done to the subject), you must use the verb ser, which is fue in the preterite tense. Using estuvo (from estar) would describe a state or condition rather than the action itself.
Why is fue (preterite) used here instead of era (imperfect)?
The preterite fue is used because the designing of the tower was a single, completed event in the past. If you used era, it would translate closer to "used to be designed" or "was being designed" over an ongoing period.
Why do we use por to mean "by" here?
In passive voice sentences, por is the standard preposition used to introduce the agent, which is the person or thing performing the action. Here, por connects the action to the doer: un arquitecto famoso.

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